Weatherford: No Medicaid expansion

Florida GOP House Speaker Will Weatherford declared in an interview that the prospect of Medicaid expansion in his state is “dead” – regardless of any additional lobbying from Gov. Rick Scott.

“I think based on where the membership is today, the votes are not there to expand Medicaid no matter what the governor says,” Weatherford told POLITICO on Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

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Stunning conservatives, Scott came out last month for the expansion of the federal-state health care program for the poor that was part of the Affordable Care Act. But a Republican-led House committee blocked the expansion earlier this month and last week a Senate panel also moved to stop the plan to offer health care to an additional 1 million Floridians.

By rejecting the Medicaid expansion, Florida is estimated to be giving up $51 billion over 10 years to cover low-income residents. Under the law, the federal government would pay for 100 percent of the costs for the first three years of the program and then 90 percent thereafter.

There has been talk that Scott’s about-face on the issue would prompt a primary challenge to his reelection next year. High-profile Republicans like Weatherford and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam both have been vocal about their opposition to the Medicaid expansion. But Weatherford, who is term limited at the end of 2014, said he wouldn’t challenge Scott. And, after some prodding, he said the unpopular but well-heeled governor should be reelected.

“I think the governor is doing a good job,” said the speaker, arguing that Florida is “moving in the right direction.”

But Weatherford, 33, plainly sees his opposition to the Medicaid expansion as a legacy issue from his speakership and one that will be warmly received by conservatives should he seek statewide office in the future.

The speaker — who is the son-in-law of another former Florida speaker, Allan Bense – used his Saturday address at CPAC to praise Republican-led states as “pockets of freedom” and honed in on the Medicaid issue.

Railing against what he called “cartel federalism,” Weatherford said states must resist the temptation of seemingly free federal dollars.

“States are being lured, and I would argue coerced, into expanding programs like Medicaid and passing regulations not through federal mandate but with the promise of free money,” he said. “They’re trying to buy us off, one by one.”

To applause, he declared: “But I am not buying it, Florida will not buy it and America should not buy it.”

In a sign, though, that Weatherford is keeping an eye on future general election viability, he’s not ruling out expanding health care for Floridians entirely.

In the interview, he said: “Now we’re having a conversation about, ‘How do we get more people insurance in Florida’ not, ‘How many people can we put on Medicaid.’”

In an op-ed last week in the Tampa Bay Times, Weatherford wrote: “Although I personally oppose the expansion of Medicaid, I also recognize it’s not enough to simply say no. The state has an obligation to investigate and pursue viable alternatives that will be in the best interest of all Floridians.”

What exactly such a plan may look like remains uncertain. One possibility, pushed by Senate Republicans, would be to use the federal dollars to expand an existing state health care program for poor children so that it covers adults who’d qualify for insurance under the expanded Medicaid plan. Those covered would be in private health plans and be compelled to pay some premiums and co-pays depending on their income.